SCM Blended Career Opportunities

SCM Blended Program

Career Opportunities

In North America, companies do most (~75%) of their college recruiting in September through November. Many companies come in to MIT SCM to conduct information sessions, interviews, resume drops, and receptions between Sept and Nov. MIT is very proud of that our Residential SCM students have had a 90% to 100% success rate in receiving excellent job offers before graduation in June.

However, students taking the blended path (SCMb) will arrive at MIT in early January, AFTER the bulk of recruiting has already happened. A few companies will still come to MIT SCM for recruiting but not nearly as many as in the Fall. MIT and the SCM program will provide career coaching and some job search support for the SCMb students. But the SCMb students will need to work harder and take full responsibility for finding themselves a job. If your main goal is to land a really great high-paying job, you are much better off attending the Residential SCMr program where time is allocated for career development and precruiting throughout the entire 10 months.

Also note that most recruiters who come to MIT SCMr are looking for young supply chain professionals between 25 and 35 years old with 5-7 years of relevant supply chain experience. Students who are outside of this “sweet spot” need to work harder to get a job. About 1/3 of these companies will sponsor foreign students for an H-1B visa, the others do not. Therefore non-US students also need to work harder to get a job.

Job Search support will be provided to SCMb students by both the SCM department and the MIT GECD office.

The SCM-provided support to SCMb Students includes:

Before arrival on campus:

SCMb resumes will be included in the SCM and SCALE “Resume Book” provided to recruiters

SCMb photos and brief profiles will be included in the SCM “Profile Book” provided to recruiters

After arrival on campus:

Career coaching, instruction and guidance on resume writing

Mock interviews practice and role playing

SCMb participation in all SCM information sessions, resume drops, and interviews while they are on-campus.

The MIT GECD provided support to SCMb Students includes:

After arrival on campus:

Full access to MIT “Global Education and Career Development Office” GECD – see the website for the long list of services provided: https://gecd.mit.edu/services

Neither MIT GECD office nor the SCM department will be able to provide job search support to the SCMb students BEFORE they arrive on campus (except for inclusion in the resume book and profile book.) Students who seek this level of support should apply to the SCMr program.

MIT SCM will urge recruiting companies to look at the resumes of SCMb students but cannot force them to come back to MIT again in the Spring semester for another round of recruiting.

SCMb Does Not Qualify for OPT and STEM

OPT and STEM are only available to students who have been enrolled for 1 full academic year. The OPT and STEM programs (explained below) are mechanisms that allow some foreign students to work in the US for 1 to 3 years after graduation without being sponsored by their employer for an H-1B visa.

Optional Practical Training (OPT) is temporary employment that is directly related to an F-1 student’s major area of study. Eligible students can apply to receive up to 12 months of OPT employment authorization before completing their academic studies (pre-completion) and/or after completing their academic studies (post-completion).

STEM OPT Extension: Students who have earned degrees in certain science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields may apply for a 24-month extension of their post-completion OPT employment. MIT SCM department is in the School of Engineering and our SCM program does qualify for STEM.

SCMr students are eligible to apply for OPT and the STEM extension, but SCMb students are not. However, while the OPT and STEM programs sound very attractive to international students, our experience has shown that relatively few US companies are willing to hire students based on OPT and STEM. Students hired on OPT and STEM will need to leave the US after 3 years. Possibly companies worry about the consequences of this requirement. Usually companies only hire foreign students if they intend to sponsor that student for an H-1B visa.